Straight No Chaser - A Jazz Show

Podcast 420: The Sun Ra Centennial with Ken Schaphorst

Straight No Chaser is the place for jazz lovers (and those who will soon be jazz lovers) to enjoy podcasts with their favorite music and artists. Winner of the 2017 JazzTimes Readers' Poll for Best Podcast, your host Jeffrey Siegel will take you inside the world of jazz, from the new releases to the best festiva;s to remembrances of jazz legends.

May 22 will be the 100th Anniversary of
Sun Ra's birthday or as Ra would likely have called
it, his
"arrival day."Who was Sun Ra? Born
Herman Blount, in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1914, he came in to
Fletcher Henderson's big band as a pianist and arranger just after
World War II and became known for his innovative arraignments. By
the 1950s, he became known as Sun Ra, leading a big band of his own
- the Arkestra - and was claiming to have come from Saturn, with
connections to the Egyptian gods.

This
reinvention of himself as person and artist, along with his
fascinating music, stage presence and costumes made him a one-of-
a- kind figure in the world of jazz. His persona represented the
ultimate liberation from space and time, and gave Sun Ra the
freedom to create an immersive experience that built on classic big
band chops to go deep into collective improvisation and multimedia
performance. All of this was rooted in a communal living situation
where his band could focus on their sound, look, and ideas with a
minimum of interference from mundane associations. Punk rock
pioneers like the MC5 and diverse rock bands like NRBQ ran to play
with him, and George Clinton, the founder of Parliament/Funkadelic
credits his costumes and stage antics as brain food for Clinton’s
own brand of crazy.

Two
concerts in the Boston area will honor Sun Ra on his
centennial. Ken Schaphorst, the chair of Jazz Studies
at the New England Conservatory will lead the NEC Jazz
Orchestra on April 17 at 8:00 pm in a
free concert at NEC’s Jordan Hall. A month later Ken will lead a
10-piece ensemble performing Sun Ra's compositions and arrangements
at the Boston Museum
of Fine Arts, accompanied by stories and projected imagery
depicting his fascination with space and ancient civilizations led
by Egypt expert Larry Berman. Tickets for the latter event,
Sun Ra's Centenary: Space Is Still The
Most Colorful Place are available at the MFA.

I spoke
with ken at length about Sun Ra’s position in the history of jazz,
and how he plans to interpret his music for the performance.
Podcast 420 features that conversation along with the music of
the late, great Sun Ra, some of which Ken says will be played at
the concerts, including: